[Page] 57

...is boiling. From time to time a headache comes on, the eyes become sunken, the lower eyelids turn livid, the teeth ache without cause, [and] there comes upon [her] melancholy, (black bile) distress, brooding, anger, disgust, shortness of breath, and blemishes (spots) upon the face. She is disgusted by ordinary food and craves unusual things; *) what she eats turns sour in her stomach, she feels nausea, and moreover suffers from constipation. 170. Pregnancy will be more certain when, along with the above-mentioned signs, the monthly flow also ceases, and at four months the lower part of the belly begins gradually to enlarge, and finally, after four and a half months, she feels the movement of the child. 171. Almost none of all the above-mentioned signs of pregnancy have dangerous consequences, and after four and a half months they begin gradually to diminish and pass away as the infant grows. 172. Whenever the signs of pregnancy are severe, one must proceed as follows: A. If there is boundness in the belly [constipation], a clyster (enema) must be administered with medicine number 20. B. If she be vomiting from the mouth, she must be given to drink, little by little, tea prepared from chamomile flowers, and every night a clyster must be administered with medicine number 20. The food must be very light and easy to digest—that is, soup of well-boiled groats or rice, or prunes, or baked apples. For drink let them use the juice of unripe grapes (verjuice), or of pomegranate, or of lemon, prepared with sugar or good honey and water. C. If women of firm and strong constitution feel pain in the head and chest, or griping in the belly and have colic, with flushed face and reddened eyes, they must let a little blood from the arm. D. If she has disgust and sourness of the stomach, then give medicine number 68 or 69, or in their stead, half a spoonful of finely pounded [substance] with water. E. Whenever the pregnant woman happens to suffer distress of the heart and faintness...

There have been instances where they have eaten lime, earth, salt, soap, tobacco, pitch, dung, flies, and other such abominable things.